And If My Grandmother Had Testicles…

Well, probably, because the average American is not acutely aware of or vehemently opposed to important elements of the policy of the Mexican government. So racism would be a pretty good default explanation. If Mexican police had just beaten the hell out of a couple of American tourists or something, the explanation would probably be different. Not that the booing isn’t rude and objectionable anyway, but sometimes there’s asymmetry in the motives people would attribute in parallel cases because they’re not actually all that parallel.

America has “insensitivity issues” as well, but even flat-out racists have the good sense not to hiss at beauty pageant contestants. Moreover, this was a Miss Universe pageant, so presumably some other people of African origin were present. For example, actual Africans.

Assuming it would not have gone unreported if the Mexican audience booed every dark-skinned person on stage, I think it’s a safe bet that the crowd was unhappy about our immigration policy.

I won’t get into the details… but I actually ended up watching the pageant. They, in fact, booed Miss USA because she fell on her behind walking down the catwalk and made the final five over more deserving Miss Mexico and Miss Nicaragua.

That’s not the point. I was addressing the idea that if the situation were reversed, we’d attribute this to racism, with the implication that this, too, is a form of racism. I was saying this is implausible, because there are reasons having nothing to do with race that Mexicans might be angry at the U.S. Whether they’re right to be is irrelevant.